The following story of Jessica’s life was written by MaryHelen Cuellar, Jessica’s aunt. I had never tried to make contact with the family of Patrick’s victim, because I was afraid it would hurt them more, but I googled Jessica’s name and this story came up. I replied to it, and MaryHelen answered me very sweetly.

Last week a 10 year old girl in Colorado was abducted as she was walking to school, a mere 3 blocks to a park where she would meet friends to continue the walk on to Witt elementary. Her mother watched her walk out of sight, not knowing it was the last time she would see her. Her name was Jessica Ridgeway. As I followed the news reports, seeing “Jessica” and “Witt” elementary, my subconscious began to feel profoundly sad. Sad enough that a ten year old is not safe from predators on our streets, but a literal reminder of what happened to my niece, Jessica Witt.

When the news came exactly one week from the day she went missing that Jessica Ridgeway’s body had been found; it was more than depressing. Of course I feel badly for the Ridgeway family, and for the little girl whose life ended so terribly. Thoughts kept jumbling in my mind; “was she terrified? Did she suffer? What kind of monster does that to a child? (Reports said the body as not intact so hard to identify).” Bottom line, I was so struck because of our Jessica’s story

Jessica Lynne Witt was born on September 24, 1974 to my brother, Jack Witt and his wife, Judy. They were both 17. Fortunately, they lived with my parents, so had help, and Jessica soon became my parents “only” grandchild although they had several more. Jessica was a darling baby, looking like the “Witts.” She had dark hair which became curly as she grew older like mine, a medium to dark brown. My brother Jack and I were the only ones with dark hair and brown eyes in our family….like our mother.

Mother took Jessica everywhere with her, I mean EVERYWHERE with her. You knew if you invited Helen (my mother) that Jessica would be with her. At times, it is hard to admit now, it was annoying. Now I just wish I could see them both. My brother and his wife had another baby the following summer when Jessica wasn’t quite a year old, a boy, Jeremy, who was born early and died only two days after he was born. Then in October of that same year (1975) my son Jason was born.

Jessica and Jason were to be best friends as Jason’s sisters were 13 and 10 when he was born, so Jason and Jessica played together a lot. Once when Jessica was 2 and Jason 1, barely able to stand up; I walked into the room to see Jessica with one hand holding Jason’s arm and the other paddling his padded bottom. Jason had a very startled expression on his face but was not crying. I explained to Jessica the concept of “no hitting.” Jessica spent a lot of days with us going to water parks, theme parks, swimming; if it involved fun, Jason wanted his cousin to go. Once when they were in Junior High and we went to pick Jessica up, Jason got into the back seat so that he and his cousin could sit together. Jessica bounced into the car (she was always in high spirits) and put her arm around Jason’s neck, and declared to me; “He is my best friend!” Once while we were swimming, Jessica was around 10, and I was holding her in the water and noticed she had her glasses on (Jason started wearing glasses at 10 also). My mother wore glasses and it was always the first thing she did in the morning, even before she got out of bed….reach for her glasses. I asked Jessica; “Why do you wear your glasses in the pool?” She replied, “I wouldn’t be able to see your face without them.” Remember I was holding her, so her little face was very close to mine.

Jessica and Jason would read poems and stories to me that they wrote; Jessica was very gifted as was her cousin. I then would read some of the stories of my childhood to them that I had written. Jessica was especially fond of stories of her Dad when he was growing up. The New Years Eve that Jessica was probably around 13, I let her have a party at my house. There were only 3 of her friends and her but I still remember them dancing to Bon Jovi’s “Sweet Child O’ Mine.”

The last time I saw Jessica was at our extended family Christmas party when she was 17. She breezed in and out with a long haired guy (not her boyfriend I was told). A few weeks later, Jason came to me troubled. “Mom, I’m worried about Jessica,” he said. My son was 16 and a full grown man at that point, 6’2” or 3” with the same dark hair that I have. As macho as he looks, my son is very sensitive; he needed to talk to me about his cousin. “What’s wrong,” I replied. “Mom, she’s hanging out with the wrong people,” he explained. “She’s moved out of her parents’ home into an apartment with friends and she’s only 17. I’m afraid she will quit school or something will happen.”

I did know that Jessica wasn’t living at home anymore which was an issue within the family. My mother had died 3 years and a few months before so my information was more sketchy than it used to be. My father and I didn’t communicate in the same way, but I knew my father was still very involved with Jessica. “Jason, she will be okay.” I said in response. “Witts are notorious for rebelling as teens and getting it together later in life.” (I was thinking of myself and all my siblings, actually. It was true). “Mom, can’t you do something? He asked. “Jason, if if try to interfere, it will be WWIII in the family.” (I could foresee the angry phone calls from my father if I tried to get Jessica to move in with me which is what Jason was proposing, and truthfully, I was also leery of the friends she might bring around my son, but trust me, these words I said have continued to haunt me).

Two weeks later, Jessica went missing. It was a Saturday and I was doing some of my grocery shopping at Sam’s Wholesale Warehouse. Pushing the basket down the aisles, I ran into my sister Susan, who is 2 years younger than Jack. I am the oldest, having been 14 when Jack was born, and 17 when Susan was born. Susan stopped to talk and I should have surmised from her manner and face but I was totally shocked to hear what she had to say. “Mary Helen, Jessica has been missing since last week.” “What!?” She had my total attention; she proceeded to tell me a story that I can’t even really reiterate here as I went into shock, but I do know the end sentence was that tomorrow they were having a ground search for Jessica’s body.

An electric shock went through me and I ran to the bathroom there, leaving Susan staring at me and my basket. I have never had that happen before or since when I almost couldn’t make the bathroom; the shock/adrenalin made everything inside me liquid and the need to void the news itself was overwhelming. When I came out, I was able to ask a few questions; one of which was “Why didn’t anyone tell me?” Was thinking specifically of my brother; my sister replied; “They were hoping she had run away and would show up, didn’t want to worry you.” Worry me? Of course I was worried but this shock was worse to me; might have been easier if I had known for awhile.

This was the end of January, around the 28th and Jessica had been missing since the 21st, I found out. She worked part-time at a telemarketer job and had not been at school or work since the 21st. During this time, Jessica was on the news nearly every night as they searched for her. I had gone into a telephone store to exchange a phone that wasn’t working and told the clerk about my niece & that I had to have a phone that worked. She looked over to her co-worker and said, “This is Jessica’s aunt.” (No, they didn’t know her or me, but had been following the news & hoping against hope that Jessica would be found alive….as I did last week with Jessica Ridgeway). The co-worker said, “Isn’t it terrible what our kids get into?” “What do you mean, “ I asked. “Well, they said on the news that she and a friend went on a credit card spree.” “What?! No,” I told them, and told them the story, then called the news station that had said that when I came home. They sent a reporter and cameraman to interview myself and Judy, Jessica’s mother. I told them the story. I asked them what made them follow up & the reporter said “You said the exact right thing to our editor….you said we weren’t reporting the truth about Jessica, and he is all about the truth.”

So our interview clearing her played on the news that day. Jessica was only guilty of being naïve and trusting the wrong people. As I learned more of the details, it began to sink in. We made posters and I had passed them out the day my phone rang on the 31st around 5 pm. It was my brother Jack, “Mary Helen, they’ve found Jessica; she’s dead.” “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO,” I wailed. Jack had tears in his voice, hearing my tears. “Mary Helen, will you please go and tell Raymond and his family?

My brother Raymond, had just been diagnosed with Lymphoma-Non-Hodgkins and lived a short distance from me with his wife and 3 children. Of course, I would. I hung up the phone and screamed and wailed. Jason was next to me, and said later that he had never seen me like that. Bless his heart, I totally robbed him of his emotions at that time. A friend of mine called as she had seen the news where Jessica was found (we had all been praying and wishing); I was incoherent, I couldn’t talk. Jason had to drive me to my brother’s. I went in to tell him, (Raymond was 2 years older than Jack and they were inseparable growing up and in life, worked at the same place and rode to work together every day. I was 12 yrs older than Raymond). Raymond was sitting at their dining table looking at paperwork and I put my hand on his shoulder and told him. Raymond looked up at me, saw the tears in my eyes, and said, “Now we are not going to have any of that; no crying; we knew this was going to be the outcome.”

No Raymond, I said silently to myself; I did NOT know this was going to be the outcome….how can our 17 year old niece be dead?I am going to go somewhere where I can feel my feelings then. It is so wrong to bury a child. My brother and sister in law were devastated. I went with them to identify Jessica’s body; unbearable. She looked so peaceful and like she had gone to sleep albeit she had lain in an open field for ten days. It was January so the cold weather had helped. She looked like a younger version of herself….an angel. I was the only one of the family to see her (I think) besides her mother and father. Raymond had to go back into the hospital, and my father was in very bad shape.

I was at Jack and Judy’s house when the call came to go to the morgue or I probably wouldn’t have gone either. After the fact, the details of what happened trickled in but it wasn’t until the trial of the man who killed her that I knew all that had happened. Jessica worked with a man called Patrick at the telemarketing job; he was in his early twenties. At times, Patrick would give Jessica a ride home as she didn’t have a car. He was definitely not a romantic interest; Jessica was engaged to her high school sweetheart.

One day, Patrick took Jessica to my father’s house. Later, my father’s credit card company called & asked him if he had his card….he went to look…..no, he did not. Next question, did you charge $8,000 in the last two weeks (my father…heavens, no). The credit card company sent my father a statement with the fraudulent charges so he could mark the ones that were his. Daddy showed the bill to Jessica as he had paid for her to have her nails done and bought her something else. When Jessica saw the bill, she realized that some of the charges must have been made by her friend, Patrick as he had traveled to California; had even bought her something at the mall. Jessica, however, did not mention this to her grandfather at the time; just pointed out what Daddy had spent on her.

Skip ahead to the next story that we heard….the police were arresting Patrick…..for murder! Jessica’s room-mate, a young girl, had a harrowing story to tell. On the night of the 21st (the night that Jessica went missing), Patrick came over to Jessica’s apartment WITH JESSICA’S PURSE and told her roommate the following: Patrick came into the room with Jessica’s purse and her girlfriend asked where Jessica was. “I killed her,” answered the slightly scruffy looking Patrick with eyes that glinted behind his glasses. “What?” said the roommate, with a chill running through her, not knowing if it was a cruel joke.

“Yes, she was going to turn me in for credit card fraud AND I WOULD GO BACK TO JAIL, so I shot her.” He continued. Patrick however either did not or would not tell her where Jessica was. He sat down at the kitchen table & wouldn’t let the girl leave the room. She was terrified that she was next. (I have always wondered why he went to their apt and told her). They sat up the entire night and the roommate began to slowly believe his story. Around 6 in the morning, Patrick told her that he had to GO TAKE HIS SISTER TO WORK (so chilling, as if nothing had happened). His demeanor was cold and cruel; he warned her not to leave the apartment until he came back.

As soon as he left, the roommate called her boyfriend to come get her and they went straight to her father, who was on the Plano police department. The police arrested Patrick at his home and found a gun under his mattress. He, however, would not tell them anything about Jessica.

The next chapter in the story comes from the trial: The police set up a sting. Patrick had a friend (whom he would later accuse at the trial of murdering Jessica, but it was not true). Patrick, watching the news stories of the search for Jessica; asked his friend to go and move her body as the searchers were getting too close.

Jessica lived and worked in Dallas as did Patrick and her body was found in Ft. Worth so I suppose that Patrick thought it was safe. The friend went to the police and told them, and Jessica was found. She had been shot at close range in the back of the head close to her ear. The coroner said she died instantly and knew no pain. That is a very small comfort, but a comfort nonetheless….to me. Later Jessica’s friend & roommate was to testify that Patrick told her he had told Jessica that he needed to get the money from his friend to reimburse my father for the credit card and that he told her Ernie was going to meet them in Ft. Worth, and that it had to be secret because it was a lot of cash.

Jessica was skipping ahead of him on the path in the open field (there were a few bushes) and calling, “Ernie, Ernie,” happy and bubbly as always and he shot her. He told her friend that she never even knew it was coming. The trial was arduous and gruesome for our family. My father had died in April of 1993. In January when he was hospitalized; one of his doctors said, “What happened to you?” and his reply was: “My little granddaughter was murdered, and I just gave up.” Our brother Raymond was dying, but my sister, Susan and I and my daughter attended every day of the trial in Ft. Worth, driving over daily from Dallas and of course, Jessica’s parents.

The case was tight against Patrick even though he tried to throw blame on Ernie. The testimony of the coroner and police were detailed of course and hard to hear. When they showed the picture of Jessica as found, one of the women jurors looked hastily over directly at me. I’m sure she thought I was Jessica’s grandmother. We were warned not to make any outcry or cry for that matter. One morning when I woke up, I felt like I was laying in an open field and I realized that I was feeling like Jessica.

Honestly, I can’t remember the counts against Patrick or what sentence he was given other than guilty. The members of the jurors lined up to hug us after it was over, saying over and over how sorry they were. By the way, his defense was his troubled and abused childhood. The prosecutors made mincemeat of that. Jessica’s mother, Judy, made a very moving speech to the judge and jury before sentencing of what she will miss in Jessica’s life. There is no closure to any of this; we live daily with the loss of our girl. Her 38th birthday was just last month, and her parents will never have any grandchildren.

But it is a comfort to know her executioner is behind bars although for some reason his sentence allowed him to be up for parole after only 12 years! What? This is Texas! We kill people for murdering innocents. The Victims Assistance Association contacted us to tell us that Patrick was coming before the Parole board each time (it has been 3 times so far) so that we can bombard them with letters. I send pictures in my letters of my grandkids that will never know Jessica and that her children which she wasn’t able to have will never play with; of my family at Christmas without Jessica; of Jessica at Christmas at our house when she was alive, and pictures of Jessica from the time she was a baby until 17.

I want the Parole Board to know that we as a family are suffering….I also tell them my father’s story; that she was his favorite grandchild, and that he would have gladly paid the $8,000 if it would have saved her life, and that her death literally broke his heart; he died of congestive heart failure the next year. That my son was her best friend and mourns daily the loss of her as well as how even though he was an honor student, he also failed the semester she was killed. Not to mention her mother and father, losing both their children. Patrick has three times been denied parole; in talking to the director of Victims’s Assistance, she has assured me that he is not eligible; he is not a very good prisoner, but if his record inn prison ever becomes better, she will let me know so I can appear before the parole board.

My only solace now is that Jessica is with Mother and Daddy in heaven. Does make you wonder, doesn’t it if they were close for a reason? I am very grateful my mother was there to meet Jessica and didn’t have to live through what happened to her. I told the story a little disjointedly and factually, but it is a VERY long time from January 21st to January 31st when you are a parent and are searching for a child; I hope I have conveyed how painful it was to lose Jessica and more importantly what a loss she was to the world. RIP, sweet Jessica. 9/24/1974-1/21/1992

After I read this I sat and wept, not only for Jessica but for her family as well as mine. Patrick destroyed more lives than one when he pulled the trigger on Jessica. I posted a reply to MaryHelen, I felt at that time I could let the family know how I felt for them.

I am Patrick’s mother MaryHelen, Patrick was not raised to be a criminal, much less a killer, a man without a conscience. When he shot Jessica the bullet killed me as well, and his brothers. Only my deluded and deceived mother holds out the false Hope, the delusion, that he will get out and live a God-fearing life. The rest of us realize he has literally sold his soul to Satan. I pray daily for your family and that Patrick never gets out of prison. I pray the parole board listens to your protest and that when you are gone Jason will take up the protest cause. God bless your family.

MaryHelen replied back to me:

Hello Joyce Thank you for commenting on Jessica’s story. I never thought of course that anyone who knew Jessica much less Patrick would read it when I wrote it. I write these stories as my memoirs and forget that I am also “publishing” them for the world. I appreciate the courage it took for you to comment and can only imagine your pain and loss. I hope that God will bless all of us who were impacted by that one bullet.

Reading that story when I was in a complete melt down about Patrick’s up coming parole and my protest of it was sort of like a wake up call to how I had let my fear of Patrick getting out send me into a “spin cycle” and it helped me so much to know that Jessica’s family now knows that I hurt for them as well as for myself. I am also glad to know that the family is protesting Patrick’s parole as well as me. Just an aside, it also let me know that the reason Patrick lied to us about his court date was not JUST about he didn’t want us to hear the evidence against him, but he was going to put on his defense as an “abused child.” LOL That’s a joke for sure.

17 Responses to “Jessica Witt The story of the girl my son killed”

Joyce, I’ve read this piece numerous times, and I cannot express my sympathies to Jessica’s surviving family members and to you, adequately.

I can sort of understand a “crime of passion.” Maybe, as in my case, there were extenuating circumstances that drove a person beyond their breaking point. Thank goodness I just beat the carp out of the exspath and that my violent response to his betrayals didn’t go any further than that. But, I cannot understand taking another person’s life for money – or, in some cases, personal entertainment. It is beyond my ability to comprehend.

I also understand the reasons that you didn’t contact Jessica’s family. I don’t believe that I would have the ability to do that, either. Perhaps, after all of this time has passed, it may be possible to connect with them on a “safe” level, but I don’t know if it’s a “good” idea or not. Everyone who was connected with Patrick and Jessica, on any level, felt the impact of his actions, and you are no exception.

But, the most important thing to note is that Patrick chose his own path – you did everything that you could to instill values, compassion, and responsibility, and he was just incapable of living in “That World.”

My deepest sympathies and condolences are with you and Jessica’s surviving family members.

There is pain all around, for both families. The story brings tears to my eyes. As a Christian, there is comfort in knowing, that her family members will see Jessica again, being able to spend eternity with her.

Thank you Truthy and Bluejay, yea, when I read this story I wept and wept, I found it at the height of my “spin cycle” during the parole protest preparation. It actually brought me up short and I stopped beating myself to death emotionally, and just mailed what I had to the lawyer, and put the rest into God’s hands.

I can never read this story without feeling as though I’m reliving the events and the pain along with MaryHelen. It makes me wish I could run time backward and stop Jessica.

Knowing that the story was triggered by another Jessica being lost, just drives home the point that there are so many victims like Jessica because there are so many predators like Patrick. We need to keep unveiling their masks, so they have nowhere to hide.

I know, it would be great to go back in time and prevent people (who don’t know about the predators among us) from experiencing whatever they experienced, at the hands of the predators. When I was a teenager, I had a stranger in a car, first stop to ask me for directions, then he followed me, asking me if I wanted a ride, a lift. I refused to go with the man because I didn’t know him (also, my gut was screaming at me). Today, I think that if I had accepted his offer of a lift, well, I don’t want to imagine what was on his mind.

Bluejay, that is called “the gift of fear” which is the name of a book written by Gavin DeBecker, who also knows what a psychopath is for sure. I strongly encourage everyone to read his book. Your “gift” probably saved your life.

We need to look at our thinking and when our “gut” tells us there is something wrong, we need to listen.

Jessica had no idea what kind of man she was dealing with when she was associating with my son Patrick, she was only 17 and wanted to be an adult and make her own decisions and have the freedom that being an adult gives you to make your own choices. She didn’t know that there were people in this world who COULD plan a murder, HER murder, like he was deciding what brand of toothpaste to buy. she died for her lack of knowledge about this kind of person.

If you google “jessica witt murder” the first thing that comes up is this page of my blog….and today someone from her family registered as a blogger here on Family Arrested. I never even dreamed that one of her family members would find this blog, much less register here…I am anxious to hear from the family and hope that they will join me in protesting Patrick’s parole.

For years I have wondered if they were protesting, and it was only finding Mary Helen’s story that assured me that they were protesting. In Texas, only the family of the victim have the LEGAL RIGHT to speak to the parole board, though in theory they do read the information that people send in….my attorney says they have the attention span of a”pet rock” though, and there is no guarrentee that what you send in will be read, or if read that they will take any notice of it. My packet last time was over 1 1/2 inches thick, nicely organized and bound with copies of the evidence in the letters he sent telling Hamilton how to manage our family, and instructions on how to ship in contraband via the craft shop. Yet, they knocked one year off his “set off date” from the previous hearing, in stead of 4, he got 3 yrs last time. The maximum is 5 years between hearings, and they can give him quick release, so I don;’t see with all the EVIDENCE I had sent and the rules infractions he had had, including a cell phone, that it made sense to DROP his set off time, I would have thought they would have gone from 4 to 5 –NOT 4 to 3. But I sometimes the don’t have much faith in the justice system handing our what is truly JUST. In my book, cold blooded killers need to STAY in prison forever. There is a good chance he will get out at least by 40 years, (about 60 years of age) doing the BEST we can do to keep him inside. Or if they get really sick, they parole them so the prison system doesn’t have to pay their medical costs. It is only a RARE percentage of inmates that do actual ‘LIFE” and never get out. Just murdering ONE little teenager isn’t “bad enough” to get life without parole—it has to be a cop or multiple murders, or rape of a child AND murder…even though pedophiles are know to NEVER CHANGE THEIR STRIPES they are frequently given 10-15 years unless they kill the child, and once out, go promptly right back to re-offending. The pedophile he sent to kill me had 3 separate convictions and had done a total of a bit over 20 years in the pen for all three rapes. If they had kept him inside after the first one, the other two (or any that he wasn’t charged with but actually did rape) would not have happened.

Yea, they ENCOURAGE the families of people like Patrick to take them in because, they say “inmates with supportive families are less likely to reoffend.” Well, statistics can prove the world is flat….those people who are not monsters, who maybe had a drug problem that caused them to steal, or any number of “reasons” they went to prison…those people may not be as dangerous as Patrick….so their families stay supportive, but for those career criminals, like my son, to be encouraged to take him back into my home is a death sentence, so yea, I think they should take them home and keep them for a pet for a month or two…might just change parole policies.

I’m not impressed with the parole officers I have met or known…Hamilton’s the man patrick sent to kill me, his PO didn’t know he was a 3 X convicted sex offender. The parole board was at first going to release him in 10 months of as 3 year sentence and put him in a HALF WAY HOUSE….they didn’t know or care he was a sex offender and that it is ILLEGAL to put one in a half way house in Arkansas. DUH??? Well, the nice lady at VINE told me the name of the law and I called up the Parole board and gave them what for and threatened to be on the governor’s steps with local news stations screaming their names if they let him go, so it was canceled at the last minute and he served another 5-6 months before he conned some nice church people into taking him in. LOL

The parole process in Patrick’s case is 9 judges and 11 wardens if my memory is correct. His file goes from one to another for perusal and any letters or pictures are supposed to be read and viewed. I honestly do not know if this is done. The first time Patrick came up for parole his file was filled with something like 1500 letters from friends and family. I have heard from numerous friends every time this process begins that they will also write. The last two times and the process that is pending now. I don’t know if a file as large as the one I believe they have for him can be transported all over Texas for them to read.

Jessica had a lot of friends. There was standing room only at her funeral to the point that they had to put speakers outside so people could hear the service. Her entire high school class attended along with teachers from her past. People that her mother and I had worked with through the years and the police officers from Plano, Dallas, Grand Prairie, Arlington, Fort Worth and the Dallas and Tarrant county Sherriff’s Dept. Such was the scope of the investigation and the search for my daughter.

Joyce, if you fear Patrick’s release, bear this in mind. He doesn’t want to be in prison and I have made it my mission in life to see that he remains there. My only regret is the pain you may feel hearing these words. I have no choice, but I bear you no ill will.

Jack, please BELIEVE ME I WANT PATRICK TO REMAIN IN PRISON FOR THE DURATION OF HIS NATURAL LIFE…..you may not have read my whole story but in 2006 he sent a man to KILL ME as well as try to obtain an inheriteance for himself that he knows if I outlive my mother he gets nothing.

My mother hired an attoreny for him in his first parole attempt, and many friends did (not 1500) write letters saying that WE were a good family and would help him.—however after he tried to have me killed, the ONLY person who has anything to do with him is my poor deluded mother. These last two parole reviews I have hired my own attorney and have sent in HUNDREDS of documents showing his attempt to have me killed, his cell phone in prison, gotten Texas State Senator Whitmere to write a letter denouncing patrick, Troy Fox the head of the parole board write a letter protesting Patrick’s parole release, and many PhDs who study psychopaths, MDs, law enforcement, and so on. Last time my packet was neatly bound and nearly 2 inches thick. This time it should be about as thick.

You are right, Jack, Patrick doesn’t want to be in prison, BUT HE DOESN’T FEAR IT EITHER….he will NOT CHANGE HIS WAYS, he will continue to hurt people. If he gets out my life and the lives of my other two sons are IN IMMEDIATE DANGER from Patrick.

IT IS ALSO MY LIFE’S MISSION AND THAT OF MY OTHER SONS TO KEEP HIM IN PRISON TIL THE DAY HE DRAWS HIS LAST BREATH…probably not going to happen, but it won’t be because we don’t try with everything we have. Patrick is EVIL, Jack, I have no doubt about that. I know that may be hard for some people to believe that I WANT my son locked up forever, but I finally saw the light, saw that he is a manipulator, a liar, and a COLD BLOODED killer. He has no conscience, no sense of wrong, only what HE wants. That’s why he killed Jessica, and that’s why he tried to have me killed. Only my poor deluded mother believes a word he says.

Here is a website about Texas paroles put up by my attorney in Houston http://texasparole.com/ though there are supposed to be several people review Patrick’s packet, in essence that is not the case he tells me. It amounts to really one of those people on the parole board reviewing the files. Mr. Smith has an 80% success rate in getting his clients OUT on parole and so far he has a 100% success rate in keeping his convict IN . I hope that continues to be the case. Also, Mr. Smith knows what a psychopath is, and refuses to work for them, or to take money from an inmate that he knows he cannot get out….how about that? AN HONEST LAWYER!~!! That is why I hired him. He is very knowlegable over other attorneys I have talked to and also seems to be CARING….he didn’t believe me when I first talked to him on the phone to hire him, but when I sent him the footlocker of evidence showing that Patrick had tried to have me killed, which included letters from Patrick, the police report, etc. and he called me back, with AWE in his voice and said “Your son is a BAAAAAAD MAN!” I said Yea, and you believe me now, huh?

Jack, you might also read this about psychopaths http://familyarrested.com/what-is-a-psychopath/ out of a POSSIBLE score of 40 on a check list of the traits, patrick scores 36-38, it only takes 30 to be labeled a full fledged cold blooded psychopath.

That’s why I started this blog to give some comfort to other mothers who are mothers of psychopaths, mothers and fathers who out of love continue to believe and hope that their child has or will change. IT IS NOT POSSIBLE FOR THEM TO CHANGE.

Patrick is just as evil as Charlie Manson or any of a long list of serial killers, people who kill without remorse or regret like you or I would stomp an ####roach.

for the safety of everyone, families must learn that by “supporting” these people they are leaving themselves and their families at risk of more chaos and heart break

PATRICK WILL ATTEMPT TO KILL AGAIN, and only someone who knows what he is (Unlike Jessica) has a chance against him. I don’t want to have to kill my son to defend myself, but if he comes after me, he will come head on into a fire fight. I AM PREPARED to do what I have to do to defend myself. He has never followed any parole or probation, and has spent only about 12 total months outside of jail or prison since he was 17, and he is after me because he hates that I know what he is, hates me because I TURNED HIM IN TO THE POLICE once and he went to jail. He still bears me a grudge for that.

It took me a long time to realize it, but now that I see what he is, I’m on a mission to KEEP HIM IN PRISON…I dont’ want to die, and I don’t want to be forced to kill him when he comes to my house to kill me, but I am PREPARED to do what I have to do to defend myself when he does come, and I have no doubt that he will.

Jack, a friend of mine pointed out that I misunderstood your post above, it was 1500 letters from YOUR friends and family…I thought you meant mine…I reread your post and I realized my friend was right…THAT MAKES ME VERY HAPPY that you were able to muster so many letters of protest….I hope that you can continue to muster plenty of support for the Protest…one year we may have to march on the governor’s office.

The man Patrick sent to kill me was paroled here after he tried to kill one of my sons and stole $25,000 from my mother….they wanted to let him out in 10 months, and put him in a half way house, but in Arkansas it is ILLEGAL to put a sex offender in a half way house so, and it was only me throwing a FIT and threatening to go to the press that the ILLEGAL placement was nixed. He did another 5 months and that time they didn’t parole him to a half way house. that guy had molested 3 kids, ages 9,11, and 14 and done over 20 years in Texas prisons. They never did parole him from there but held him til the last day of his sentence. Then they had to turn him loose free as a bird, he only had to register, but there are so many loop holes in that and he knows all of them. They do not keep up with these folks very well so the registry is a farce up here at least.

I received the following letter today via another blog on which I wrote about Patrick, it is from Mary Helen Cuellar, Jessica’s aunt.
mimiMH says:
August 19, 2013 at 11:21 pm

Hello Joyce, I am MaryHelen, Jessica’s paternal aunt. I wrote a story about Jessica on storyofmylife.com and you commented on it, but I didn’t know until I saw on Facebook all the agony you had been through (a link to this story and another blog you wrote). I had almost decided to not torture myself this time when I was notified of the parole board hearing Patrick’s request again until I read your story. I have not forgiven him but even writing the letter (and I send pictures of Jessica and our family) is tortuous, reliving the murder over and over. I have a few details of the story of Jessica’s murder a little differently, learned from the trial; one was that Jessica was shot just behind the ear with her back to Patrick; she never knew what hit her, killed instantly. The other was that Patrick went back to Jessica’s roommate, but stayed there all night, terrifying Jessica’s roommate who was afraid she was next. He left the next morning to take someone to work, warning her not to leave that he would return. She called her boyfriend, who took her to Plano police dept where her father was on duty and the rest is as you told it. These small details don’t matter but it was a very small comfort to me to know that Jessica was not terrified before her murder. She trusted Patrick unfortunately; he had told her a friend was meeting them out in a field to give him the money to repay my father’s credit cards. For anyone else who may be reading this; Jessica met Patrick at a part time job, telephone marketing. I guess they didn’t do background checks. Jessica was my brother’s only child at the time; they had another son, one year younger than Jessica who died shortly after birth. My father died from a broken heart the next year; Jessica was his favorite grandchild. Our family has had a huge void ever since. I have written my letter, am sending a copy of the story I wrote about Jessica’s life with no expectation that the parole board will read it; and will send the pictures of our holidays this past year without Jessica. Next year, my son is getting married; he and Jessica were a year apart and best friends; she should be here. I will go to the parole board hearing if there is a chance that Patrick will be released. I am 70 now so if he tries to kill me, at least I’ve lived longer than Jessica or my kids; I don’t want them to go. Thank you Joyce for your courage in putting this information out; my brother and I and our family have asked our family and friends to write letters. If volumne counts, Patrick should have to stay in the rest of our lives at least. Take care, MaryHelen

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mimiMH says:
August 19, 2013 at 11:46 pm

P.S. Joyce if you do speak to any media; I would love to be interviewed; I never understood why Jessica’s story didn’t get more press.

My reply to her was:

Dear Mary Helen, thank you for posting here, you may contact me directly by e mail at oxdrover1946 @ gmail dot com, I would love to talk to you.

I spoke to Jack on the phone the other day for about two hours, and I think it was healing for us both. I am really glad that I have finally made contact with your family. I am also Glad that though he can never forget, Jack is moving on with his life, and healing, and am terribly sorry that Judy is still in such daily pain.

In June I “spun out of control” emotionally and have been ill physically, and at that time, just quit trying to get more letters to the board, but do have a significant and large quantity of letters and some from very “important” people, so I hope my attorney can get it read. My attorney is a sharp guy and parole is his job, so ANTI parole is also his forte.

I’m 66 MaryHelen, and I will continue to fight patrick’s parole as long as I live and my sons in their 40s will fight as long as they live. There’s no way that Patrick can know anyone else that writes letters against him or speaks at a hearing as parole stuff is like grand jury, SECRET so Jason could safely protest and no one would know except the board.

I wasn’t aware it was out there on facebook, but that is where Jack said he found my contact information…and you found this story and link to Love Fraud.

I told Jack that when my attorney sends me the packet he is preparing to send to the parole board that I will mail him a copy and also a copy of the one that we did last time, nearly 2 inches thick…I will include you in my mailing of those two packets, so please contact me by e mail and we will talk. Thank you for your story of Jessica Mary Helen, you have no idea how much COMFORT it has brought to me and my other sons. God bless you.

[…] of doing so. Within five months after his release he murdered a 17 year old girl, Jessica Witt, http://familyarrested.com/jessica-witt/ because she turned him in to the police for using her grandfather’s credit card to run up […]

Read an article today about a young man who killed 3 sibs and his parents and how the defense is saying he should be sentenced as a juvenile and be allowed out at age 21, but his family members wrote the judge saying they are afraid of him for themselves and for the public if he is released

New Mexico boy, 15, who pleaded guilty to killing his parents and three siblings can be rehabilitated, defense attorneys say

Nehemiah Griego, now 18, pleaded guilty in October 2015
Griego was 15 when authorities say he killed five family members at their home south of Albuquerque
Defense attorneys say Griego was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder after his arrest
They say he can be rehabilitated and has made significant progress at a state psychiatric treatment center for juveniles in the past 18 months